We’re All Like Hobab

Have you ever felt insignificant in the grand scheme of things? It’s not that you feel self-degrading or worthless as a person, but that your life isn’t really making a difference. Most of us have felt this way at one time or another.

Let me assure you, everyone has a place in God’s plan! We’re all like Hobab. Unknown to most. Not going to be in the history books. And just living out our lives in the place we’re at.

Hobab was a man in the time of Moses. In fact, he knew Moses and traveled with Israel in the desert. He wasn’t an Israeli. He was a Midianite. Yet, he was valuable enough that Moses wanted him to travel and live with Israel. More importantly, God made mention of him in His book. And let me tell you, being found in God’s book means more than all the fame and wealth in the world.

Let’s take a look at what the Bible says.

“29 Now Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the LORD has promised good things to Israel.”
30 And he said to him, “I will not go, but I will depart to my own land and to my relatives.”
31 So Moses said, “Please do not leave, inasmuch as you know how we are to camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. 32 And it shall be, if you go with us—indeed it shall be—that whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same we will do to you”” (Numbers 10:29–32).

Who was Hobab? What made him valuable to Moses? Hobab grew up in the desert. He was a country boy that knew his way around the brutally harsh desert. He knew how to find water, what plants to eat, and what the wildlife was like. He could read the desert as well as a New Yorker knows how to get around a crowed street. The Israelites couldn’t match him in that harsh environment. His knowledge and skill was invaluable. Moses didn’t want to lose him!

Everyone of us is a Hobab! God made us unique in His Kingdom. We all have our place in the multitude of Believers. God has bankers and farmers, sailors and cowboys, someone for everything. None of us know who we’re influencing, helping, or giving hope to in a dark time. Hobab wanted to go home. Get back to the life he was living before Moses came around. He didn’t realize how special he had become. Moses had to show him how important his life was by promising a shared blessing. (Giving a raise always helps to keep an employee.)

I’m convinced that few of us know how much influence we have upon others. Others that God brings across our paths that we never even notice. We’re living the life that we know and are familiar with, nothing special to us, but others haven’t experienced. Others that need the familiarity and experience from our lives.

I encourage you to live your life for Christ and let Him use you where you’re at.

Stay strong and be prepared!